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Here's Why Investors Should Retain Accenture (ACN) Stock Now

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Accenture plc, (ACN - Free Report) has an impressive Growth Score of A. This style score condenses all the essential metrics from the company’s financial statements to get a true sense of quality and sustainability of its growth.

The company has an expected long-term earnings per share (three to five years) growth rate of 10%. Further, earnings are anticipated to register 10.2% growth in fiscal 2021 and 9.6% in fiscal 2022.

The company’s shares have gained 22.2% in the past year compared with 21.8% rally of the industry it belongs to.

Aiding Factors

Accenture is steadily gaining traction in its outsourcing businesses, backed by strong demand to assist clients with the operation and maintenance of digital-related services as well as cloud enablement. In the first-quarter fiscal 2021, Accenture’s outsourcing revenues increased 9% year over year.

Accenture's cash and cash equivalent balance of $8.67 billion at the end of first-quarter fiscal 2021 was well above the long-term debt level $60 million, underscoring that the company has enough cash to meet its debt burden. A strong cash position enables the company to pursue strategic acquisitions, invest in growth initiatives and return cash through regular quarterly dividend payouts and share repurchases.

Additionally, the company raised its guidance for fiscal 2021. Revenues are expected to register 4-6% growth in terms of local currency compared with the prior growth rate of 2-5%. Operating cash flow is now anticipated in the range of $6.65-$7.15 billion compared with the prior guidance of $6.35-$6.85 billion. Free cash flow is now expected between $6.0 billion and $6.5 billion compared with the prior guidance of $5.7-$6.2 billion.

Risks Associated

Higher talent costs stemming from a competitive talent market and Trump’s stringent policies on immigration are hurting consulting-service providers like Accenture. The industry is labor-intensive and heavily dependent on foreign talent.

Zacks Rank and Key Picks

Accenture currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Business Services sector are Republic Services (RSG - Free Report) , Gartner, Inc. (IT - Free Report) and NV5 Global (NVEE - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The long-term expected earnings per share (three to five years) growth rate for Republic Services, Gartner and NV5 Global is pegged at 9.4%, 13.5% and 16.8%, respectively.

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